Ishita Singh

IIM Ahmedabad

DOI : https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v5-i7-47

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ABSTRACT

Homosexuals have been cast out as sinners and anomalies worldwide, while even being criminalised in some countries, like India, which uphold religious sentiments to advocate its criminalisation. Heterosexuality has been accepted as Nature’s default, the “normal”, banishing any other sexual orientation. It is little known how a variety of sexual orientations were accepted and celebrated in various cultures, prior to the colonisation of those countries. The physiognomy and dress of “natives” often confounded Europeans’ notions of gender propriety and sexuality, whether it was due to the long grown hair of Ceylon men, or the dangerously oversexed Black African men or the perceived sexual voracity of Arabs - casual perceptions that often reflected Europeans’ insecurities turned into obsessions about “native” sexual misconduct, provoking new sorts of sexual regulation and repression.
A closer look at the history of homosexuality in India brings its colonial legacy in the limelight. A read of the Indian scriptures and ancient texts provides evidence that unlike popular belief, homosexuality and cross dressing has been widely represented and accepted in the Pre-colonial India. The criminalisation of same sex relations is both culturally and legally, a British construct. My crucial question then, is what allows politicians and courts to carelessly wield “culture and tradition” to prove decriminalisation of homosexuality as a sin? How is decriminalisation not westernisation or not simply a result of the fascination with western concepts? The aim of my research is to take a closer look at the history of the LGBTQIA++ community in India, especially referring to the Indian scriptures and sacred texts to bring out an argument that the criminalisation of homosexuality in India has been entirely a British construct. It is to look at the instruments that allow politicians and courts to advocate Section 377 by citing Indian tradition and culture to prove homosexuality as unnatural, abhorrent and a sin. The objective of this paper is to argue against the commonly believed idea that “Gay rights” is a ‘western’ concept and decriminalisation of homosexuality is a brutal ‘westernisation’ of India’s ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ thus coorrupting it. This paper is aimed to prove the existence, celebration and acceptance of homosexuality in pre-colonial Indian culture through numerous readings of sacred texts, scriptures as well as taking a look at Temple sculptures and art.

REFERENCES

1) Aldrich, Robert. Colonialism and Homosexuality. London and New York : Routledge, 2002.

2) Halperin, David. ‘Is there a History of Sexuality?’. History and Theory, 28 (3), 1989 , p. 257.

3) Han, Enze. O’Mahoney, Joseph. British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality: Queens, Crime and Empire. London : Routledge, 2018.

4) Devdutt Pattanaik, ‘Did Homosexuality exist in Ancient India’’, Devdutt.com , 2009.

5) Pattanaik, Devdutt. ‘Gender Fluidity in Hinduism’. Devdutt.com, 2020.

VOlUME 05 ISSUE 07 JULY 2022